


Calling Dr. Love

by rockbrigade



Series: The Great DaBapedia [8]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Domestic, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-29
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-19 04:51:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2375267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rockbrigade/pseuds/rockbrigade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bane turns 27, at the same time as turning into a germ factory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Calling Dr. Love

**Author's Note:**

> For Bane's birthday (September 29th!) I added an extra domestic tag because it's extra domestic.

He coughed into his fist once or twice as he helped customers adjust their machines to their workout plans, and he gargled and spat from his water bottle a few times on his break. When he got home, he sank back into the couch, tilting his head all the way back and let the pressure of his neck grate his throat. His whole mouth felt rusty. His eyes stung, and when he moved his head forward again, water pooled about his eyelashes and fell out like tears when he blinked. Then Davide came home. "Hey, welcome back," Bane said, a wheeze catching in his throat. He placed his palm against the base of his neck and coughed.

Davide slipped off his shoes, and missed the hook for his coat three times as he watched Bane steadying himself. In a low crouch, almost a lunge, Davide approached the couch and knelt in front of it, peering into Bane's face. "Were you crying?" he said. 

"'Course not! My eyes are just," Bane described his condition with a throaty grunt. "Think I'm comin' down with something. God, I can't even remember the last time I was sick." Davide pawed at Bane's face, holding his jaw steady to examine his eyes. Then he stroked Bane's forehead. "Ahh, your hands are cold," Bane said.

"Your head is warm," Davide said, as if correcting him. "I will get the medicine," he said, his eyes glowing with purpose. He skipped into the bathroom and the vibration made a cloud of dust fall down from the ceiling, and Bane had to put off grinning in favour of another coughing fit. Davide returned with a bottle of pills, but seeing Bane coughing again, he abandoned his mission temporarily to provide Bane with a sturdy pat on the back. Davide filled a glass with water and passed it over, waiting for Bane to catch his breath. 

"Is there another crack in the ceiling?" Bane said, finally, pointing a finger above his head. Davide followed it with his eyes and frowned. He reached up and swept the ceiling with his fingers, examined them, then crumbled the dusty residue between them. 

"Uh oh," he said. 

"Uh oh as in--?" Davide nodded at him solemnly. "Great," Bane said, through a cough, and Davide pushed the pill bottle into his hands. "Thanks." He swallowed hard and tried not to show the bitterness of the medicine in his face. 

Davide's fingertips between his shoulder blades made him jump, but they wound in soft circles through his shirt. "What else can I do for you?" Davide said, sitting close beside him on the couch. Bane leaned back, squinting at Davide through his eyelashes. Davide's eyes flickered, then he pulled close to Bane, parting his lips, and the sound Bane made in protest was muffled.

"Can't really breathe through my nose," Bane said, when he got free. "'sides, what're you doing! I'm probably contagious!"

"You know what they say. Couples like us gotta sick together." The retort was completely swallowed up with coughs, and Davide rubbed Bane's back in sympathy. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. I always get sick when you do." Bane nodded. All those hazy sick days when they were kids, tucked up together in the room of whoever's mom was home, sore throats getting hoarser while they spent all day chatting. No harm in it, then. Bane inched his face closer to Davide's, and touched the hair that fell just behind his ear. Davide's long eyelashes tickled his cheek.

The TV murmured the scores, and the hissing tap and clanking plates soothed him. Bane let his eyes close, and then he felt a hand rocking his shoulder. Davide. What a pretty face, but instead Bane said, "Was I asleep? What time is it?" He felt his throat gumming, and it itched as he tried to talk. His voice came out quieter than it did before he'd closed his eyes. 

"Let's go to bed," Davide said, "you're pale as a sheet… like a bed sheet…" Bane frowned through the fog in his head. "You're really out of it," Davide said, placing his hand on Bane's forehead and finding it sweaty. "I really wanted to wish you 'happy birthday' at midnight, but it looks like you'll be fast asleep by then." Bane sat up from the couch and the apartment swayed, and he found Davide's steadying arm around his waist. And when he opened his eyes, it was dark, and his pillow was damp. Bane's brow felt heavy. He peeled the warm cloth from his forehead and squinted up at it. The deep rumble of snores rose up beside him, and he realised that the cloth must've been cold once. He stretched out a hand to touch Davide's hair. 

The brightness of the room stung his eyes, so Bane changed his mind about opening them. Someone was talking but it wasn't an actual language; it was a weird stream of long sounds. Aliens, maybe, aliens do this, right, they shine lights in your face and… say shit. Bane opened one eye and strained his head forward. Just the battered doors that separated their room from the rest of the apartment, and the voice was coming through that one little gap where the runners were too sticky for the door to shut properly. Wait a minute. French. It was probably just French. Bane thrust his head back into his pillow, crisis averted. He could hear Davide saying, "oui, bien," over and over, and he hadn't remembered hearing the alarm. Without moving, he reached back behind his pillow and groped for the clock. 

"Balls!" he said, but it was more like a dry rattle, and he coughed to get his throat clear. Bane heard his name being said down the phone in the other room, and a few moments later, the gap in the door widened and Davide - minus phone - peeked an apologetic face through it. "Why didn't you wake me? I have work today," Bane said, struggling to master the hoarseness in his throat. He moved to get up, but Davide hurried over and sat beside him, placing a gentle hand on his chest. 

"I don't think you should go to work today," he said, "I know you think your condition is stable, but you're still a little horse." He tried not to laugh, but failed, and Bane pulled hard on his cheek. 

"It's just a cold," Bane said. He swept his hands over Davide's shoulders, then kissed his lips. "I'll be fine," he said, tilting his head to see the look in Davide's eyes. Good. Bane steadied his hand on the bed and braced his legs, ready to stand, but Davide threw his arms around Bane's neck, toppling him completely and landing him back in the pillows.

"Don't go," Davide said softly, into his ear. Bane brought his hand up around Davide's waist, finding the place where the shirt rode up and left the skin exposed, and rubbed the length of Davide's hip bone, around to the small of his back. And then, as if Bane had inhaled a dust cloud, he felt gritty particles in his lungs and throat and twisted his tongue to stop himself from coughing in Davide's face. "You've been work… you work… very hard, it's why you're sick, and besides--" Bane tapped his shoulder. He moved back and let Bane sit up and cough into his hand. "Besides, it's your birthday." 

Bane frowned. "Knew I forgot somethin'." 

"Also, happy birthday," Davide said.

"Don't say it like it's an afterthought!" Bane punched lightly at Davide's shoulder. Davide took Bane's clenched fist in his hands.

"Stay home? I'll stay, too. Let me look after you?" Bane frowned again, so Davide added, "Ojii won't mind if I don't go today!" Bane thought for a moment, then sighed.

"Alright, ya big girl," he said, smirking at Davide. Making an offer he can't refuse like that. "Doctor's orders, right? Better show me some o'that bedside manner, then." And Davide kissed his neck and touched his chest beneath his vest, but Davide's hands were cold and it sent a shiver through Bane… a very definitively unsexy shiver. He shuddered and felt the pain in his throat at the back of his nostrils, and Davide dove away quickly to pass Bane the box of tissues by the bed. The sneeze was so loud, the apartment quaked a little. "Sorry," Bane said, through tissue, "I am pretty gross…" 

Davide looked for all the world like he wanted to disagree, but he said, "I'll make you breakfast. I asked Mama for a recipe." 

"Thanks," Bane sniffed and raised his head to keep the mucus back. "I better call work anyway." Davide patted him on the shoulder, and then passed him the phone, before rolling back the sliding door and heading to the kitchen. "You know what we should do, though, now we're both home?" Bane said, watching him leave. Davide turned toward him to show he was listening. Dang. "We should get looking for that new apartment! This dump's really falling apart," and Davide nodded vaguely. 

When the ringing down the line stopped, Bane recognised the voice of his supervisor, and he bit his tongue to bite back a curse. "I wanted to let you know I won't be coming in today, I feel awful," he said, coughing in demonstration. There was a pause.

"Says here it's your birthday today, is that right?" Bane bit back another curse word.

"It is… it sucks being ill on your birthday," he said. He felt Davide's offer of sick day care floating further away by the second.

"Right. I'm sorry, Kurobane, but we need you here today. We're short on staff." Course. Course you are. 

"I see, well, that's fine, I can make it, it's no problem," he rolled his eyes for Davide's benefit, as he entered with a dish of warm food. "I'll be right over." He ended the call and groaned. "They want me to go in," he said, and Davide stroked his shoulder. He looked disappointed. 

"At least eat breakfast?" Davide said, with a small voice. 

"You bet I'm gonna," Bane said, taking up the dish and a large spoonful of its contents. By the time he made it to the gym, he was glad for having eaten. His head pounded under the glare of the bright spotlights, and the air conditioning made the sweat on his brow feel cold and he shuddered and sneezed. He managed a smile for the receptionist, but she all but winced when she saw him. Looks as bad as it feels, huh. 

He clocked in, then went to the staff lockers. His shirt was wet as he pulled it over his head, and as he examined it, folded over his palms, the sweat had soaked through enough that he could see his fingertips. The staff shower let him breathe in great gasps of warm air, and the sensation of it through his nostrils was a novelty. Still, there was a haze of steam over everything that stayed with him once he'd towelled off and changed. A surging sound rose in his ears as he headed back through reception, and everything he saw got eaten up by gravelly, pulsing grey, with small flecks of neon colours at the edges of everything, like white noise and a colour test for the TV overlapping. His ears were ringing, or no, the receptionist shrieked, maybe, or did the alarm go off? Either way, when feeling returned to his fingers he could feel the regular, round nodules that made up the linoleum floor. Huh. Bane sat up cautiously, and squinted about him. His heart was really pounding, and the sweat felt cold on his back, but his head was clearer now, or something. The receptionist skittered over to help him into a chair. 

"Are you okay? Shall I get you some water?" He nodded at her, and she disappeared behind the desk. Bane tried to remember whether he'd just tripped or actually passed out, and the receptionist nudged the cold plastic cup against his palm. "I'll call for the supervisor," she said, and Bane just smiled at her weakly. He sipped the water as the receptionist's voice echoed over the Tannoy. 

When the supervisor passed through the door into reception, he stopped still, bending forward slightly and squinting at Bane. Then he passed a hand through his hair and swallowed. Yeah, you better be sorry, but Bane did his best not to look too triumphant. He approached, hesitated, and then said, "Kurobane, you don't look well." The receptionist hurried over, and with her hand on her cheek, she gave her dramatic retelling of how Bane had bit the dirt. Bane sipped his drink to stop himself from sighing. "That's no good," the supervisor said to Bane, once the receptionist had hurried back to her desk, "I think you should go home. Take the rest of the day off."

"I'm fine," Bane said, but his voice grated against his throat, "I was just dizzy. Had the shower too hot, or something."

"Nonsense! We're promoting healthy lifestyles here, you'll show us up looking like that!" Bane wanted very much to go home, but there was another part of him that wanted to get up and run a marathon on a treadmill, just to shut them up. 

The receptionist looked up from her desk, "Kurobane-kun, I called your emergency contact. He says he'll come to pick you up." 

"Your wife's not picking you up?" said the supervisor. 

"What?" Bane must've sounded significantly confused, because the supervisor ran his hand through his hair again and apologised.

"Am I thinking of someone else? I thought you got married over the summer?" 

A grin stole over Bane's face. "Oh, right," he said, with a crackling laugh, and the supervisor chuckled with him.

"Not used to it yet, huh? I was the same!" The supervisor gabbed away, about marriage, sports and work, and Bane found he didn't mind it. And when he complimented Bane on his work and satisfied clients, Bane thought guiltily of his evening classes. Nice of the supervisor to say he was going places, but not in this place, that's for sure. And when Davide arrived, Bane smiled and nodded at his supervisor, and as he ducked into the staff room to get his things, the supervisor called, "say hi to your wife for me!" 

Davide had the nastiest scowl on his face as they left the building. Bane patted him on the back, and he sighed. "As if you'd have a wife," he muttered, but he sounded jealous nonetheless. 

Bane groaned as he let himself drop into the couch. He checked his watch. Only about midday. Davide had a bag of something and was finding a place for it on the tiny kitchen counter. "You see Ojii?" Bane said, and Davide nodded at him. "He alright?" 

"He gave me this," Davide said, lifting some kind of rooty vegetable out of the bag. Davide wrinkled his nose at it. "'pparently, it's good for colds. A good diet is the root… of good health. Pfft!" Bane looked around for something to throw, and in the end settled for his jacket. Davide put his hands up to stop it from hitting him in the face. 

"How do you eat that thing, then?" 

"Drink it. Ojii said tea, I think. I'll make some now." 

"Thanks, babe," Bane said, "you're the best." There was a pause. "The best husband in the world and I'm lucky to have you," he added quickly, in case Davide was still upset about his imaginary wife. Davide turned to him, humming thoughtfully, with a frown on his face. 

"Well," he said, holding his chin, "actually I think you're the best, too, and that's great, see, we compliment each other. Pfft!" 

Nothing left to throw! "Get over here so I can punch ya," Bane said, and Davide rushed over and threw himself into Bane's arms. Bane held a clenched fist above Davide's head and pretended to hit him, but Davide just squeezed him tight. Well, this was alright, too.

"Ah." Davide looked up. "Want your birthday present?" He pulled back and jogged over to the sliding doors, holding a finger aloft.

"We're saving for a new apartment?" Bane said.

"It's not expensive," Davide said, from the other room.

"Is it you in skimpy underwear?" Bane called. Not that he'd mind.

"No," came the reply, "I am expensive." Davide returned with a small gift box. "Happy birthday," he said, as he passed it over. Bane pursed his lips, looking at it, guessing. Then when he moved to lift up the lid, Davide said, "I know you haven't finished studying yet, but you're gonna pass your course and when you do--" Bane held up the whistle by its cord and grinned, "well, you wouldn't be a P.E. teacher without one, so…" 

"It's awesome! I love it!" Bane pulled Davide toward him by his face and smooched him.

"Wait, there's one more," Davide said, trying to get free. 

Bane raised both his hands to show his crossed fingers. "Underwear, underwear, underwear!" he chanted. Davide took a folded sheet of paper out of his pocket and smacked Bane with it. "What's this?" Bane said as he unfolded it. 

"I didn't get a lot of time to look, but it's a start." An apartment listing. "I think we should book a viewing. Looks like they charge a… flat rate… Pfft!"


End file.
